Jail for Red Lodge man with nearly 60,000 indecent images of children

A man caught with nearly 60,000 indecent images of children at his Red Lodge home has been jailed.

Mark Flack, 49, was arrested after police went to his home in Laburnum Close, on October 16 last year.

Computer equipment seized was found to contain 58,493 indecent photographs of children, nearly 1,000 of them at the most serious level, plus 1,333 indecent videos of children, of which 433 were the most serious level.

Michael Crimp, prosecuting, told Ipswich Crown Court today that a small number of prohibited images of children were also found.

Some of the photographs had depicted children as young as three.

During police interviews Flack had either declined to answer questions or provided only a limited response, said Mr Crimp.

Flack had pleaded guilty to four offences of making an indecent image of a child and one offence of possessing a prohibited image of a child.

In mitigation, Jonathan Seely said Flack, who has no previous convictions, had lost his job as a carpenter as a result of the case.

Mr Seely said: “He is a 49 year old man who lives on his own. There was something of a devastating divorce after which he has descended into deeper and deeper social isolation.”

Flack had expressed remorse and said he had not appreciated the seriousness of what he was doing, said Mr Seely.

Jailing him for 21 months, Judge John Devaux told Flack that aggravating features in the case were the high number of images, the possession of moving images and the young age of some of the children involved.

Flack was told that he must also pay £250 towards the cost of the prosecution and that he will have to sign on the Sexual Offences Register for the rest of his life.